Sander Carling

Sander commanded the Signal Regiment as an Acting Lt Col between May 1974 and Jan 1975 following the upgrading from a squadron to a regiment in 1973. Both Peter Brunton and Mike Chandler met Sander at Welbeck College before he went on to RMA Sandhurst then to the School of Signals at Catterick. Sander was well known for his love of jazz and his extensive collection of records. Mike and Sander played together in the College’s rather ad hoc skiffle cum jazz band.  Sander was an accomplished cornet player and could do a mean imitation of Louis Armstrong or Humphrey Littleton.

When Sander left SAF in 1975 he ran Electroman LLC, one of HH Sayyid Fahr’s companies in Muscat. It was during this time that Mike met up with Sander again and they enjoyed ‘banyans’ and water skiing together with his speed boat in the bandars south of Muscat.

Sander was married to Jill for over thirty years with whom he had two sons, Oliver and William. On leaving Oman, Sander and Jill owned and ran the Alpaka Hotel in Tignes, a Ski resort in the French Alps. Sander was an attentive host and was proud of the standard of food served in the hotel restaurant. The hotel bar became the prime apres ski venue for many of the local ski instructors. He was also an expert skier and enjoyed taking parties of guests from the hotel on extended excursions around Tignes and cross country to neighbouring resorts.

Sander died 24th August in hospital in France.  He had been out looking for his dog the day before and had a fall, hit his head and did not recover. His funeral was in Tignes on 31st August with jazz by the lake afterwards.